Classic Beef Barley Stew

This is another one from the crock pot cookbook that I got for Christmas. Barley is good for you. That's why I picked this one.

Classic Beef Barley Stew
2 pounds beef stew meat, cubed
1/4 cup flour
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
2 onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 16 oz bag baby carrots
1 8 oz pkg sliced fresh mushrooms (yuck. Omitted)
1 cup medium pearl barley
4 cups beef broth
4 cups water
2 bay leaves

Trim excess fat from stew meat. On large plate, combine flour, paprika, salt, and pepper. Toss beef in this mixture to coat. Heat olive oil and butter in large skillet. Add beef cubes; brown, stirring, on all sides, about 5-6 minutes. Remove beef from skillet and place in 6 quart slow cooker. Add onions and garlic to skillet; cook and stir until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes, stirring to loosen pan drippings. Add onions and garlic to slow cooker. Add all remaining ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 7-9 hours or until barley and vegetables are tender. Remove bay leaves and serve.

Okay so this was pretty good. I had to add salt to my bowl, which I was surprised at because of the salty broth. But other than that it was good. The meat was very very tender, Emma didn't complain a bit. So a keeper. A bunch of it is going in the freezer too so I have meals ready when I am "laid up" with my hip surgery. Good times.

Haitian Chicken

A couple of months ago a friend of mine, Stephanie Dunn, found this recipe when we were having a Haiti meeting. I don't know where she got it from. She made it with boneless chicken breast strips and made them in a skillet on the stove top. I thought I would try it like it was written. I am 98% certain that most Haitians do not eat this way, having eaten many meals there myself. But, maybe. We had this with brown rice (made with my homemade chicken stock yummmmmmm instead of water) and green beans (sans hair, if you saw Steve's facebook poll yesterday).

Haitian Chicken
2 1/2 lb chicken, cut up
1/4 cup lime juice
2 1/2 tbsp honey
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp paprika
1 tbsp chili powder
pinch of red pepper
1 lg clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp basil

Arrange chicken skin side down in shallow baking dish. Combine remaining ingredients in small bowl. Pour over chicken. Bake at 350 uncovered for 30 minutes. Turn and bake 30 more minutes, basting. Broil until browned. Sprinkle with bread crumbs.

Turns out, I didn't have to broil mine, it browned quite nicely just the way it was. This was pretty tasty. I think it was too much basil, but besides that it was pretty good. Steve just chimed it "It was really good." Sam picked up his drumstick and ate it (usually I pick the meat off the bones for the kids, and I still did for Emma & Nathan, but I thought it was time for Sam to eat it the real way) and he did admirably. Overall a good recipe.

I was just informed by my other dear friend Renee Reilly that she found this recipe rather than Stephanie (if you read the comments on this post then you realized that, too). Just want to give credit where credit is due!!

Corn and Black Bean Quesadillas

We had this for supper last night. It is meatless, so good for you vegetarian types. Also so so so yummy, so good for those of you who like yummy food. I am, generally, not that big of a fan of meatless things, because I don't like vegetables, really, and usually meatless recipes rely on things like eggplant or zucchini or whatever. But not these. And these are pretty inexpensive to make too. I stumbled upon this recipe while thumbing through a magazine my mom had passed on to me, All You. Because of course it's all about YOU. According to this magazine, at least. Anyways the Bible says "Let each esteem others as better than himself" (Philippians 2:3). But whatever. Also a big shout out to my mom for bringing me salsa and corn so that I didn't have to bring all 3 kids out to get 2 little things. Okay so here's the recipe.

Corn and Black Bean Quesadillas
1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed (I didn't thaw mine first and it was still fine)
1 tbsp canola oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped (I left this out b/c I don't like spice)
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 oz pepper jack, shredded (I used Mexican shredded b/c I don't like pepper)
salt and pepper
8 8-inch flour tortillas (we used whole wheat ones)

In a bowl, coarsely mash beans with potato masher. Warm a large skillet over med-high heat; add corn and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until corn begins to brown (this only took like 2 minutes for me, probably because the corn was still frozen and the pan might have been too hot). Add corn to bowl with beans. In the same skillet, warm oil. Add onion and jalapeno and saute for 2 minutes. Add garlic and saute 1 minute longer. Stir mixture into bowl with beans and corn. Let mixture cool to room temperature, about 10 minutes. When cool, stir in cheese and add salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 200. Spread a tortilla out on a work surface and spread 1/2 cup of mixture over half. Fold tortilla in half. Repeat with remaining tortillas and bean mixture. Warm a large skillet (I used the same one) over med-high heat. Cook as many tortillas as fit in the skillet, 3 minutes, then flip quesadillas and cook until golden brown and crispy and cheese is melting, 2-3 minutes longer. Place quesadillas on a baking sheet and keep warm in the oven while you cook remaining quesadillas. Cut into wedges and serve.

So it doesn't say anything about adding oil before you cook the quesadillas, but the first 2 I made burned a bit, so I added a bit of oil and turned the heat down for the remaining quesadillas and they came out quite nicely. We had ours with a little bit of salsa on the side for dipping. I knew Nathan wouldn't like this, so he had chicken nuggets, but Sam and Emma loved these. Steve and I did too. Seriously these were so good. Definitely a keeper and probably we'll make them again really soon.

Amanda's Cookies

I got this recipe from my friend Amanda. Of course she does not call them this, she has some longer name for them. But this is how they will be known to me. Yesterday I was dropping off Amanda's Tupperware order from Autumn's party (you should totally have a Tupperware party--my consultant is Rebecca Coffin, you should friend her on facebook). Amanda had been baking all afternoon, so as to send some cookies to a member of our Armed Forces in Hawaii (gulp--she paid $14 to overnight the box--this is serious dedication!!). When I got to her house, she offered me some cookies. I took 4. I ate one, gave one to Samuel, and saved the other two for Steve. The one I ate was very very good. So I asked her for the recipe. So here is her recipe. And her prep instructions.

Amanda's Cookies
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup quick oats
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 oz chips (chocolate, peanut butter, or combination)

Heat oven to 350. Throw everything in your Kitchen Aid mixer. Scoop them onto cookie sheets with the medium Pampered Chef cookie scoop (incidentally, I also have a great Pampered Chef consultant--Jen Cyr) and flatten slightly with the back of the spatula you are using to scoop the cookies off when they're done (in my case I use the small PC spatula). Bake (and here I can't remember exactly what she said, I wrote down everything but that...) 8-10 minutes.

These are so so good. The perfect combination of everything. You should definitely make these.

Sausage and Potato Stew

I made this last night. It's from the crock pot cookbook my mom got me for Christmas. This is the 2nd recipe I have made from it. I usually think about crock pot meals being quick and easy. This hasn't really been true thus far for these recipes. There is a LOT of prep work to get them into the crockpot BUT they have been very flavorful and tasty. Also, this is the first recipe I have made using my own homemade chicken stock! Woot! I am very pleased with how this second batch turned out, after having thrown away my first batch (see a previous post). Overall this was a good soup. My Grampie came over to eat with us, spontaneously, and even though he is a more traditional type of guy, he said a few times how much he liked the soup. So he got most of the leftovers since Steve isn't crazy about soup, really. We had this soup with homemade bread.

Sausage and Potato Stew
4 slices bacon
1 pound polish sausage
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 32 oz box chicken broth (or 4 cups homemade stock woot woot)
2 cups water
2 cups frozen corn
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 13 oz can evaporated milk (I could only find 12 oz cans...weird)
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 15 oz can creamed corn
1/4 cup chopped chives

In large skillet, cook bacon until crisp. Drain on paper towels, crumble, and refrigerate. Cut sausage into 1 inch pieces and cook for 2-3 minutes in bacon drippings. Remove and place in 4-quart slow cooker. Add onion and garlic to skillet; cook and stir for 4 minutes. Pour all ingredients from skillet into slow cooker. Add potatoes, chicken broth, water, and frozen corn. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Add red pepper and evaporated milk to slow cooker. In small bowl, combine creamed corn and cornstarch; mix well. Add to slow cooker along with reserved bacon. Cover and cook on high for 30 minutes or until soup is thickened. Sprinkle with chives. Serve.

So this soup never really thickened up. Well, I shouldn't say never, but after 30 minutes it seemed to be no thicker. I couldn't wait any longer because everyone was at the table but me! So it really was more like soup than stew. Steve said it was good to have it soupy though because the bread soaked it up really good. It did seem like the sausage lost a lot of its flavor after being cooked all day. But I am very pleased about using my chicken stock! It smelled so good and I was like, oh yeah, I made all that. Woot.